Dying Light (8 page)

“
I want to help you.”
Nikki’s face is still red, but she’s fighting to keep her tone
level. “You need me.”

“
No one here needs you,
sweetheart.”

“
Jesse.” Ally almost
stamps her feet. “We do need her if you want to attack Caldwell
head-on. We need all the help we can get.”

Come see me
alone
, Caldwell had demanded. I hate to
admit it, but now that I’m awake and the world is coming into focus
without the blurry edge of drugs, I’m starting to see my situation
a little differently.

I don’t even want Ally and Gloria to
come. I don’t want the people I love anywhere near Caldwell. But do
I think I can get Winston back without them? That’s a soft
maybe.

Is Caldwell going to try
to kill me,
I ask Gabriel.

“
Yes.”

Wow, way to sugarcoat
it.
Like as soon as he sees me?

“
No. There is an order to
abide.”

Can I get Winston back
alone?

“
I do not
know.”

If I bring them, are they
in danger of being killed?
It’s a stupid
question. I know the answer even before Gabriel confirms
it.

“
Yes. He wants Alice
dead.”

“
Jess?” Ally tugs on my
hand.

“
I think you guys should
stay here. Maybe you shouldn’t leave the tower.”

“
I know he asked you to go
alone,” Nikki says, ratting me out. “That’s stupid and
dangerous.”

“
No.” Ally lets go of my
hand and grabs her hips. “You are not going alone. Are you
crazy?”

Gloria is the only one who doesn’t
chastise me. “We all need to get out of this tower.”

Nikki searches Ally’s face for an
answer.

“
The tower is going to be
bombed. Everyone should leave.”

“
Were you going to tell
me?” Nikki asks, her eyes wide.

Ally frowns. “Of course. I wouldn’t
just leave without letting you know you’re in danger. But you won’t
be in danger because you’re coming with us right?”

“
Can we at least have dry
clothes,” I moan. “It’s like negative a hundred out there and my
hair is wet.”

A swarm of emotions plays over Nikki’s
face. She opens her mouth only to close it again. She stands aside
and lets Ally into the room. Nikki closes the door, leaving only a
crack.

“
You’re going to leave
us,” Gloria says.

I give her a nervous smile. “Am
I?”

“
You understand that
Caldwell still wants to eliminate the competition.” It’s basically
a really nice way of calling me stupid to my face.

“
I know.” I absentmindedly
pick at the bump on my shoulder. “But I want Winston back, and I
want you guys to be safe. I’ll have Gabriel, my shield, and my
firepower.”

I think she’s going to give me more
shit about this, but she just nods, a bizarre kind of
approval.

I peer into the dark room
and see
Ally shoving her things into bags.
Nikki is murmuring soft words to her. I don’t
want
to leave them. By the time I
get back—if I come back—she might be engaged to this
wench.

So not happening. The door opens wide
again and Nikki steps out into the hall with her own bag packed and
hanging from one shoulder.

“
Okay, let’s go,” Nikki
says.

“
Issuing orders now?” I
ask. “What about my dry clothes?”

“
We’ll stop by your room
and let you change. But you have to be quick about it.”

“
Sure thing,
Sasquatch.”

“
Can I dry my hair?” Ally
steps out into the hall and lifts her bag up onto her
shoulder.

“
You’re such a girl.”
Nikki smiles at her, taking one of her hands in her own. “I really
like that about you.”

Oh yeah. There’s no way I’m putting up
with this for long.

Jesse

W
e reach the first floor and the elevators open to the sight
of Jeremiah and a small team of guards. Given the immensity of the
room, they aren’t that intimidating. A huge domed ceiling hangs
above, letting in the moonlight. A Christmas tree at least fifteen
feet tall stands off to one side, its big red bows and cream
decorations matching the soft swirls in the marble
floor.

“
I knew it. Shit’s about
to get real.” I groan. The shield flares to life around Ally and
knocks Nikki back a pace. God, if only I could make it bigger and
push her halfway across the room. That’d be awesome. I wouldn’t
even mind that I stand exposed and vulnerable in the center of this
grand foyer.

“
I’m not here to fight.”
Jeremiah steps away from his detail with his palms out in
surrender. I don’t lower the shield. I glance at Gloria to make
sure she’s okay. She’s got her hand on her gun, but hasn’t raised
it yet.

“
You’re here to stop me.”
I step in front of everyone.
Keep an eye
on her
, I tell Gabriel, aware that my back
is exposed to Nikki.

“
If you have to go, fine.”
His tone suggests it is everything
but
fine. “I only want to make sure
you understand that I am on your side.”

“
You shot me in the neck,
sedated me, let my dog get kidnapped, left me and Ally trapped in a
burning building, tried to hold me hostage. Oh, I don’t know why I
must be so confused about whether or not you’re on my
side.”

His jaw clenches. “If you need our
help, you need only ask.”

“
I can’t sit here in your
fancy building while Caldwell has Winston. The fact that you expect
me to do that is absurd. What really pisses me off is that you
think you can just give Ally a good shake whenever you want
something from me. If you ever do that again, you’ll be lucky to
keep both your hands.”

My firebombing power flares. Ally is
safe in the shield and Gloria is far enough away, assuming I don’t
actually explode. The flames dance up my body and I let them
simmer, despite the creepy way my skin crawls. It’s all I can do
not to squirm like I have to pee.

“
You know what they say
about playing with fire, right?” Okay, I can be a little
melodramatic. Shoot me. What’s the point of having a fancy power if
I can’t make people back off?

He turns toward Gloria.

“
I want to thank you for
warning us about the bombing.” Jeremiah meets Gloria’s eyes.
“You’ve saved lives.”

“
Damn right she did. And
don’t forget it.”

I snap my fingers for dramatic effect,
and the flames sputter out around me. I can smell the strange
stench in the air, almost like burnt rubber. I wonder what the fire
burns from the air?

“
Now move so I can save my
pug.”

Jeremiah steps aside. His men do the
same. “Call us if you need us.”

I don’t say anything more.
I don’t need to. That’s the awesome thing about being me. Just go
all fiery and walk out like,
what,
bitches? What?

We make it out of the building without
further incident, Jeremiah and his men standing illuminated in the
great foyer, watching us leave.

The freezing December air whips around
my face, tousling my damp hair. At least Ally was smart enough to
ask for those dry clothes or I’d be completely miserable right
now.

“
This way.” Gloria points
us down North Michigan Avenue toward the subway.

I come up beside Ally and offer to
carry one of the three bags she packed. She lets me take
one.

“
I need to talk to you,” I
say, adjusting the weight of the bag on my shoulders.

“
I won’t share anything
you say with Jeremiah,” Nikki says. “I promise.”

“
Pinkie promise?” I say,
derisively.

Nikki’s face falls flat.

“
Seriously, can we have a
minute alone?”

“
Can it wait until we get
to Gloria’s?” Ally asks, pulling hair out of her mouth.

No,
because I’ve already half decided that as soon as we reach
Gloria’s, I’m taking off, but I can’t say that with Sasquatch
listening.

I want Ally to know I’m leaving but
not to worry about me. It will never fly, but maybe I can get her
to understand if I explain it to her. I want to tell her what
Gabriel said about the earth and the shield. After all, it’s the
first real clue we’ve received about what the angels might mean.
Ally could figure out Gabriel’s warning, I just know it. And I know
she has her own secrets to share, like about this so-called sister
of mine.

We descend the stairs to the subway.
The pale fluorescents overhead flicker as we wiggle through the
turnstile and then down another flight of stairs. At this time of
night, the platform is nearly deserted. Gabriel catches up with us
as we are stepping onto the car. His wings lay flat against his
back as if in consideration of the few other passengers riding the
train. I find it comical since they can’t even see him, let alone
get an angel feather to the eye.

Where’d you go?

“
I was watching,” he says.
He floods my mind with images of Jeremiah returning to the control
room. Jeremiah giving orders to tail and observe us. A man steps
onto the adjacent train car at the next stop and glances at us
through the small door connecting the cars. I know instantly he is
one of Jeremiah’s men, though I almost never see their faces with
their black mesh full body armor.

“
There’s a—”

“
I know.” Gloria cuts me
off. “Don’t stare.”

Of course she knows there’s a tail.
Gloria is like the closest thing to a ninja I’ve ever met. She
didn’t need some froufrou angel to tell her shit.

We get off the train three stops later
and climb the stairs to the street. The wind hits me again and I
miss the slightly smelly streetcar. It really is the wind that
makes Chicago so damn cold. It cuts me right to the
bone.

“
Here we are.” Gloria
stops in front of an unimpressive brick building. “Come
on.”

We file into the lobby, bringing up
the rear behind Nikki and Ally. Instantly, I’m relieved that the
wind stays outside. My iced cheeks begin to melt and I’m hoping my
crunchy hair is next.

Gloria leads us to the stairs on the
left side of the elevator.

The foyer of this apartment building
isn’t as glamorous as Tate Tower. It has more of a vintage 1920s
feel to it with its dark wood walls, Victorian furniture, and large
chandelier. The three of them take the stairs while I linger at the
bottom, waiting to see the man from the train.

No faces show up in the front window
outside the turnstile door, and when the lobby guard gives me a
suspicious look, I smile and follow the others up the
staircase.

I reach the landing of Gloria’s floor
and see the three of them standing outside her apartment
door.

“
We need to decide how to
proceed,” Ally is saying. She’s already slipping into action mode,
examining our problems and looking for a solution. I glance down at
her bag in my hands.

“
I want to keep you away
from the tower,” Gloria tells her as she slips a key into the lock.
“In my sketch—”

“
Wait, what
exactly
happens to the
tower?” Nikki butts in.

“
There’s a picture that
Gloria drew,” Ally says, but I’ve stopped listening.

If I’m going to sneak off and meet
Caldwell, now would be the best time. I drop Ally’s bag on the
stairway and slip down the staircase again. In the lobby, the guard
gives me another suspicious glare, and I force a smile.

“
I forgot something in the
car,” I lie and quickly cross the lobby out to the
sidewalk.

Gabriel unfurls his wings beside me.
God, if only he could block the wind. That’d be awesome.

“
I don’t know how to find
him.”

“
Call him.”

“
Like on my cell
phone?”

“
No,” Gabriel
says.

Instantly, I know what he means. I
search the street, looking for the tail that could show up any
time, but don’t see anyone. A couple of people are walking on the
opposite side of the street toward some unknown destination, but
they don’t spare me a glance.

My teeth start to chatter and the tips
of my fingers go numb. The remaining damp tendrils of hair ice on
my head. Again. I close my eyes anyway and try to focus my
mind.

Caldwell
? I cast the thought out
into the wide expanse of the city. If he’s really watching my every
move, he might hear me.

Caldwell
, I think again.
Come and get me.

Ally

G
loria
slips
her key into the lock of her apartment and we
step
into the small
living room. It’s a studio with a hotplate in one corner on top of
a cabinet and a water closet in the other. No doubt it is three
times the cost of my apartment back in Nashville, even if it is
only a fraction of the size.